Email Inventor, Ray Tomlinson, Dies At 74

Forum 8 years ago

Email Inventor, Ray Tomlinson, Dies At 74

Internet Hall of Famer and computer legend, Ray Tomlinson has died.

Born in Amsterdam, New York, Tomlinson is revered as the man who basically invented email as we know it today, including making the choice to use the“@” sign in an email address. He passed on at 74.

Tomlinson invented email, a system where a user on one network could send a message to someone on another network, in 1971,
disassembling our world forever.

He became a cult figure after his invention for ARPANET, the predecessor to the Internet, that allowed people to send person-to-person messages to other computer users on other servers.

He proceeded to win many awards over his lifetime for email, but wouldn’t say what the first email ever sent actually said.

Speaking with The New York Times in 2009, Tomlinson explained, “I sent a number of test messages to myself from one machine to the other. The test messages were entirely forgettable and I have, therefore, forgotten them.”

The tech world has reacted with sadness over his passing…